Captain to address Congress workers’ meet, Bajwa ‘clueless’

Friday, 18/10/2013

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JALANDHAR: Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa on Thursday expressed ignorance about the proposed party workers’ meeting to be addressed by his predecessor, Capt Amarinder Singh, in Kapurthala on October 21.

Earlier in the day, Kapurthala MLA Rana Gurjit Singh, who is considered close to Amarinder, had revealed about the workers’ meeting in his constituency.

On a media query about the development despite the party high command’s directive to present a “united front”, Bajwa left it to Punjab affairs incharge and All India Congress Committee secretary Harish Chaudhary, who was sitting next to him, to decide on the matter.

When asked whether the Congress leadership would attend the workers’ meeting, Bajwa said, “I have no information about it yet and the decision on attending it would be taken after getting the invite.”

Bajwa was here to launch his series of meetings with the Congress cadre at the district headquarters. He announced that he would hold two meetings of the district Congress committee and the block Congress committee every month.

Chaudhary defended Bajwa’s barbs targeting Amarinder in front of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi during the Sangrur rally last week.

“He (Bajwa) did not show any disrespect to the Captain. It was the media which blew the matter out of proportion. All are united as far as party matters are concerned and will fight unitedly to bring the Congress back to power,” Chaudhary said.

WORKERS DON’T GET CHANCE TO SPEAK UP
Earlier, while presenting the agenda of his meeting, Bajwa appealed to workers to prepare a strategy for the 2014 parliamentary elections. The meeting was arranged hurriedly between Bajwa’s engagements in the city.

Despite Bajwa’s announcement from the stage that every leader would be given a chance to speak for two minutes, only Bajwa, Chaudhary, urban and rural district unit presidents addressed the gathering. None of the party workers got a chance to speak their mind.

Bajwa was here to take part in the Shobha Yatra on the occasion of Valmiki Jayanti. He also inaugurated the showroom of former Jalandhar mayor Jai Kishan Saini.

BAJWA SLAMS BADALS ON PADDY MSP
JALANDHAR: Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) President Partap Singh Bajwa on Thursday accused the AkaliBJP government of not paying minimum support price (MSP) of ` 1,345 per quintal on paddy to farmers. He described it as a ‘big loot’ by the Badal family.

Bajwa said farmers were being paid ` 1,050- 1,100 per quintal, which was ` 300 less than the MSP announced by the UPA government.

He alleged that neither the chief minister nor any minister/MLA of the ruling alliance had visited mandis so far to listen to grievances of paddy growers.

“In a tricky way, in a month’s time, ` 1,000 crore would be siphoned off from farmers’ pockets,” he said.